Shikamaru walked calmly down the hallways of his home with his hands in his pockets. He had done decent in the chunin exams and was now in the finals meaning that he had to train for the next month more or less by himself. It was a drag.
He passed by his parents room and overheard some less that hushed words.
"Is it true?" his mother said.
"Yes. our scouts have reported that suna shinobi forces have emptied their village. And considering they didn't let us know…" his father said.
Shikamaru leaned away from the door a bit shell shocked. Suna was going to invade? It was the conclusion he had drawn. He suppose it made sense. From the lessons in the academy they were slowly losing business to konoha. And considering they only sent one tem of genin this was probably a last ditch effort into putting their village metaphorically back on the map.
By betraying his village unfortunately.
He thought back to the suna genin currently in the village and realised they were probably in on the plan. While the cat suit wearing boy didn't seem to bad, temari was smart, and dangerous.
Her brother was even more so.
Thoughts of the blonde kunoichi and the comments naruko made of her and him brought a blush to his face and cause a slip of attention. He bumped into a vase sitting on a podium sending it to the ground with a crash. He paled when he realised it was the one his mother had recently purchased and ran from the house and sounds of his mom screaming his name came shortly after.
Shikamaru narrowly avoided an expertly tossed frying pan. He ducked under it and paled when he saw it was hilt deep in the post he was next too. He scrambled out of the area outside his compound and bolted towards town square. He caught his breath outside of a ramen stand. He sighed, why did his mother have to be so troublesome, you think any other mother would be happy he had gotten into the finals but apparently his comment about dropping out very risking his ass was something she didn't like. He walked inside the stand and sat down quietly. He was surprised not to see naruko already here but then again it was pretty early. He watched the curtains move as someone else entered the stand. He was surprised to see it was temari, the opponent he was going to be facing in a few days and, much to his annoyance, the girl he had developed a slight attraction for that naruko had blabbed to the whole god damn village. Honestly was it his fault? She was attractive, smart, strong willed, sarcastic, had spikey hair and really pretty eyes.
In short she was everything a female Nara would be but he wasn't going to think about that too much.
She seemed to notice him too and quickly looked away. Naruko had also let the village know that his slight attraction was returned but shikamaru found that too troublesome. He was suppose to just find this girl attractive, masterbate to memory and then when she left he would have to get over her and marry some empty head gold digging civilian girl who could bag Sasuke. Shikamaru had planned on it because it was the most likely course it action. He felt himself shoved slightly and it brought him out of his thoughts.
" Aren't you gonna say something pineapple head?" He head temari say. He honestly hadn't been paying attention and rolled his eyes a bit.
" I was daydreaming but nice to know if someone not constantly paying attention to you, you resort to violence." Shikamaru said. He ducked under a swung battle fan and then fell out onto the ground outside the stand to avoid a vertical slash. His eye brows creased as he stared into the sky. The woman was more troublesome than his mother. He saw temari get out of the ramen stand with a scowl on her face. What was she angry over? He was the one being attacked. He jumped up, brushing himself off a bit while lazily bending back words avoiding another swipe.
" I don't get why your attacking me but I suppose your reasons are behind logic at this point." He said. He flexed his chakra and his shadow locked the suna nin in place. Her posture became of her putting her hands in non existent pockets with a lazy posture. She saw the anger dissipate to annoyance and he released the jutsu. Shikamaru made a move to walk away before temari called out.
" Aren't you going to show me around the village?" She asked. Shikamaru looked back half lidded.
" You didn't ask me to so, no." Shikamaru said turning back around.
" I'm the kazekages daughter! Show me around the village." Temari said stomping up to him. She was royalty back in suna! No one talked to her like that, not that they ever talked to her… but that was besides the point. She swung her fan and was shocked when it was caught by a black tendril. She saw it was her shadow being controlled by shikamaru. He turned slowly, but rather than little annoyance or a dismissive attitude like she had seen before his eyes held a bit of but to them.
" And I am shikamaru Nara, heir to the Nara family, son of the forest king, Prince of shadows, and the guy who you are treating like shit at the moment and expecting to kiss the ground you walk on." He said. He then walked up to her, getting inches from her face.
" I'm not sure what's worse, stupid braindead useless fangirls, or strong competent kunoichi who believe the world should pause to praise them. You're a guest in this village, and I don't care if your royalty back were your from, you attack me again and were going to have some issues." He said. He turned to walk off. Maybe find choji and treat him to some barbaque. He stopped when he felt a hold on his shirt. He turned and saw temari with a guilty expression on her face.
" I'm sorry, will you please show me around the village." shikamaru rolled his eyes but motioned for her to follow. Temari caught up and walked on her left side for a bit feeling awkward. He felt bad for hitting him earlier and talking to him like that and wasn't sure if he was still upset or not. She was pulled from her thoughts as he wrapped his arms around hers. He casually put his hand back into his pocket locking her arm with his. She blushed a bit and shikamaru didn't say anything.
" So you're from wind country." Shikamaru said. Temari rolled her eyes a bit at the obvious statement.
" Obviously, why are you asking?" Temari shrugged a bit.
" Not asking, just thinking out loud. What you consider normal is very different from what I consider normal so I'm thinking of the things to show you and do." He said. Temari blushed a bit, was this guy really that thoughtful? They walked a bit before shikamaru came to a shop.
" Wait here." He said going inside. It took a minute but he came back with two spheres on waffle cone shaped things. He handed her one and she took it with slight curiosity.
" It's ice cream. It's popular here in the land of fire. " Shikamaru said. Temari watched as licked at the ball and did the same. Her mouth was filled with creamy sweetness and a pleasant chill. It was nothing like she had experienced before. In suna ice was k my kept for heat stroke patients and those only got heat stroke because their chakra ran out and couldn't dissipate heat fast enough. They spent about ten minutes eating the treat before shikamaru guided her to the next location. The arrived at a hot spring and continued in. Shikamaru explained to her to change into one of the swimsuits they had and meet him back at the private baths. She changed, admiring herself a bit in a one piece and felt a bit nervous before continuing out. She saw shikamaru standing on the edge of the water wearing a skin tight pair of shorts and temari admired the slim but chiseled form of the Nara heir. He guided her to the water and they both got in. Temari relaxed in the water appreciating the sensation. In the desert they kept all their water cold for drinking do to it's lack of abundance so having a warm soak was a new feeling to the sand princess, a very nice one. She looked over and saw shikamaru let down his hair and she felt herself blush a bit at the sight. He merely closed his eyes and enjoyed the soak stealing glimpses of the kunoichi while she wasn't looking.
About an hour later they left and the sun was setting over konoha. Shikamaru had just gone off for a second to grab something but wasn't tell temari what he got. He brought her to the hokage monument and to the very top overlooking the village. While the colors weren't as cut and dry in the desert but the way the colors bounces and bent off the trees and leaves with something amazing to her. The clouds added shadows and brought on a whole new visage to the sight of a sunset. She was brought out of her amazement by shikamaru snapping something in front of her. Her eyes adjusted and saw it was a assortment of flowers. Having grown up in a place where water was a rare thing any plants that were grown were used for war, various poisons and toxins and sleeping powders so having something as fragile as a flower was like having a jewel. And here this boy was offering her an assortment to her. He must of known what they meant to her as he had been unbelievably thoughtful of her and her life back home and made her experience things she never got to living in the sand covered waste land of wind country. She felt a wave of close rush over her as she thought about how bad she had treated him, and how in a few short days she would take part in an invasion to destroy this boys way of life and very likely attempt to kill him. She felt a few tears well up, she wasn't supposed to cry. She was a battle hardened warrior. An Amazon and yet, he was so nice, and innocent and thoughtful. He treated her the way she had seen him treat no other and she felt different then she had ever felt before. She shakily grabbed the flower and held them to her chest.
" Why, why are you like this? I was so mean to you, you should hate me!" Temari said raising her voice. He heard shikamaru sigh.
" I don't hate you. I don't think I could ever hate you. I know you were hot headed when we met but I didn't mind it. You changed and apologized so that's over. You're smarter than you realize, you make cute faces and interesting sounds when you experience new things and I like that about you." He said. " I like that your not afraid to speak your mind, that you listen to logic, that your firm with what you believe in."
Temari shook her head, feeling tears slip.
" No, no,no! You don't know, you don't know everything about me or you would, you would hate me." She said.
" You mean the invasion." Shikamaru said. She watched as temari paled dramatically and her fight or flight kicked in. She tried to jump was was pulled back down by black hands as they restrained her.
" Calm down. We've known for a little while. We've made sure we have the correct plans in place for when it happens." Shikamaru said. " And despite that I still don't hate you, and will never hate you, troublesome woman."
" W-why?" She asked. He then got close to her, holding her chin in his right hand.
" Because, you're my woman." He said. Temari's eyes widened as shikamaru planted his lips onto hers. She went rigid but then melted into the kiss. She wrapped her arms around his head and his arms around her waist before breaking the kiss.
" I'm not gonna let anything happen to you ok? Your under protection by the Nara clan." He said. Temari nodded weakly, honestly this should have gone a lot worse. The second they found out they were planning to betray konoha her and her siblings should have been rounded up and interrogated. She should have been executed. But here she was, standing on the hokage monument overlooking a beautiful night sky after an amazing day kissing an equal amazing boy. It didn't feel real, but she held shikamaru close and he held her tighter and she felt like she and her family we're gonna be ok.
He sat over looking the house he knew she was in, the high trees made it easy to pry into the personal lives of other shinobi, ironic considering how much clans values privacy. But she wasn't like other shinobi, he thought. Mother had whispered things to him, interesting thoughts and feelings. Mother told him that she was like them. Two beings sharing one body. A container and a tenant. Mother told him to dominate her during their match but not kill. It was the first time he had heard his mother talk about mercy. He said she would be his partner, a beta, but only if he beat her, crushed her, humiliate her in front of everyone and in front of her mate. He did not feel anything for the girl, nothing personally at least. He shared a kinship with her because she was a jinjuriki but nothing like the feelings mother was having. But he was a good son, he would obey mother because mother was all he had. His siblings feared and shunned him, his uncle had tried to murder him and his father had sent leagues if assassins to try and kill him. He had no friends, no family, no love, he lived for himself. His stray sand alerted him to another nearby. He almost felt the rush to kill when he realised who they were. He disappeared into his sand and appeared back on the ground and saw his two observers. Two girls, a year younger than him. They wore what could be considered rags to most but it was all they had. One had short Sandy brown hair and the other longer dirty blonde hair. They were his father's attempt to keep him from lashing out during the chunin exams. He sent them with him and his team so if he felt the need he would state his blood lust with their blood. They were orphans, no one that would be missed by village. They were scared, frail things, but despite their morbid task they were determined to stay by his side. They found him when no one knew he was missing which brought an odd feeling to him, bloodlust? Hatred? No none of those, something different. He brushed off those thoughts.
" Matsuri, sari, what are you doing out here." gaara said simply. They weren't being stupid, posing any threat to him, nor were they disobeying him or causing trouble so his voice lacked any malice.
" We c-came to find you gaara-sama" matsuri said. Gaara approached the girl with a single step. She recoiled a bit. Did they truly believe he was going to kill them here? In a public street in an enemy village?
" You have found me, let's return." He said as his quite steps echoed through the village.
The stands were filled in konoha stadium as villagers and shinobi alike waited for the chunin exams to start. Important clients and daimyo also we're spectators as they wanted to see the next generation of shinobi and the potential they had for missions. The talk of the exams were split between Hino uzumaki and Sasuke, both once members of the two most powerful dojutsu weilding clans now out cast or the last surviving member. The other was more for the shinobi and it was naruko uzumaki versus gaara. It was sunas jinjuriki versus konoha and despite the majority population's opinion if the blonde they needed her to be powerful, and their match was a perfect example of why. gaara was the instrument of the invasion, the key piece and if naruko could not beat him then it would mean sparing otherwise key defensive resources to handle him. If sh could the invasion would likely be near casualty free but it was unsure who the Victor would be. The first match would be Hino uzumaki versus Sasuke uchiha. Followed by shino aburame versus kankuro. Then Temari versus shikamaru and Finally naruko uzumaki versus gaara.
The stands soon filled completely, teams sat together to cheer on their finalist, sensei's watched closely waiting and civilians we're on the edge of their seats.
Karin sat next to Lee in the stadium. She was going to cheer on her cousin, the girl who was her last time to blood family along with the girl who had allowed her to stay in the leaf village with her boyfriend Lee. She smiled as he was eating with much enthusiasm her curry. Speaking of which. She pulled out a scroll and made a ram symbol. A puff of smoke later and a hot pot of curry was revealed with a large amount of rice. She scooped a spoonful of each into a bowl and sealed the pots away before she enjoyed some herself.
Hanabi sat next to her father overlooking the arena floor. While many of the other spectators we're talking and joking while they waited she sat next to her father in perfect stotic silence, like a good hyuga would. She felt a twinge of guilt at the thought.
Her brother was the best hyuga she knew and he left the clan. The irony was not lost on her.
He had saved her from being kidnapped, gotten a rare elemental affinity or potential bloodline and avoided the cage bird seal. He was also in the finals with his wife. Despite her not having the same negative feelings about the fox container as the rest of her clan, she was still very protective of her brother. He was the best brother a sister could ask for and he deserved the best wife possible. And from what her clan whispered about apparently naruko was not that wife. Still, her brothers opinion mattered so she at least had to meet the girl before judging.
Sakura and ino sat next to each other, both of their minds a bit of a daze after the night before.
Sasuke had invited both girls to training ground three not telling the other. He explained to then that he had seen a good amount of change in them from the chunin exams but he wanted them to get stronger. He wanted them to stop dieting and caring entirely about their looks. He said he needed them to survive. They asked why he needed that and he made it clear that with the addition of haku, some girl he met in mist country, that they were the two candidates he had choose to be his future wives. He stopped them before they could cheer and reminded them that they had to get strong, strong enough to survive because if he lost either one of them it would destroy him. He left them in that state of information overload which lasted well into the current day. Now they were going to watch Sasuke, the man who told them he wanted to marry them, the man who had been their entire purpose for getting dressed up, putting on makeup, dieting and training since they could remember. Needless to say they weren't gonna be snapping out of their daze for a while.
The contestants entered the stadium floor and the crowd erupted with cheers. A bandana wearing chunin greeted them before dismissing everyone but Hino and Sasuke. The other contestants made their way back to the stands and the proctor spoke.
" All techniques allowed, the fight ends when I say so and not a moment after. Begin." He said swinging his arm down. Sasuke began throwing a few shuriken at Hino who easily dodged it. Sasuke clicked his teeth hoping to have made Hino use some chakra. He jumped towards him, bring an axe kick down which Hino caught and flipped him over, Sasuke landed and let out a low whirlwind kick which Hino dodged, jumping up into the air and letting out a hail of ice at Sasuke. Sasuke returned with a fireball, melting the small ice senbo and causing cheers to sprout from. The crowd. Hino landed and both inspected themselves.
" No ice style fighting? You do care" Sasuke said looking at the lack of frostbite.
" I do, but you went to destroy my senbon, not wound me so I could say the same." Hino said.
" Let's change that."
" Let's."
Hino rushed at Sasuke this time looking for a jab at his midsection but Sasuke pushed it left and brought up a fist to Hino's jaw but was blocked by a forearm strike. This was the hard part and both new it. Neither were going to make head way, Hino's taijutsu was perfect and Sasuke could predict his team mates movements to fluidly. Both jumped back. Sasuke tossed two windmill shuriken in arching opposite directions towards Hino. Hino sent up to spikes of ice intercepting them in their centers before Sasuke sent out a charge of electricity through small wires attached to the shuriken. The charge caused the ice to explode and Hino swirled into andome of ice, blocking the sharpnel. Hino smiled a bit. He was now in his domain. He sat down cross legged and willed the stray ice to reform. The ice clustered together into three separate shapes, two were ice clones of himself and the other was a nine tailed Fox. He smirked seeing some wide eyes and all three for a rushed towards Sasuke. Sasuke frowned and back petaled up the stadium wall. He needed to time this right. He held his position as he saw the three ice clones jump at his position. He even took note as Hino reformed the landscape around his done with spikes. Sasuke jumped, twisting his way between the fox and Hino clones as a paper bomb went off, shattering the forms, he was riddled with ice but he was gonna need that extra speed. His arms crackled to life with a thousand birds chirping as he made a lighting strike fast path to Hino. A shattering of ice was heard and the crowd waited in bated breath as the smoke cleared. When it did they Sasuke was in the dome but his arm caught by a wall of ice and Hino was a mere inch from being struck.
" You could have used those new fancy eyes of yours you know." Hino said.
" And you could have used those ice mirrors or even gone airborne but you didn't " Sasuke said. Both boys smiled before raising their hands.
" I forfeit." They said.
It took but the crowd started to cry out with disapproval. Mean while Sasuke and Hino made their way back up with the other contestants.
Next was shikamaru versus temari.
Same as canon.
The proctor called out
" Next contestants!" And kankuro screamed.
" I forfeit!" Causing a course of boo's to erupt.
The crowd was getting upset, they expected amazing spectacular fights and drama, hearts and dreams on the lines but these genin seemed like they could care less! The first fight was good but they said they were holding back because they were teammates. Second fight was fine but it ended like a dud of paper bomb. And now a fight ended before either genin got to the ring this had to change!
"Naruko uzumaki and gaara please report to the arena floor." Genma said.
It was at this time the crowd silenced themselves. They forgot that the last fight was between the two most scorned people between suna and the leaf village. The demon whore and gaara of the red sand. The shinobi tensed in the crowd. The amount riding on this fight was nearly unimaginable, the fate of two villages, in the hands of two people that had despised, hated, beaten and tried to murder. This wasn't looking good.
The two contestants entered the ring. Gaara appearing in a swirl of sand and naruko a swirl of leaves. Many shinobi were impressed by the high level skill shown.
"Hajime!" Genma said jumping back.
"Release!" Naruko said. A puff of smoke revealed naruko only her form had changed. Several males blushes while others looked on in jealousy. But most looked on in fear.
Naruko stood with her fox ears and 9 tails displayed proudly as they swayed slightly behind her. Her clothes had changed, she was a tight dark orange strapless sleeveless top, a short white bandage skirt. Her hair was it's usual pixie cut and her whiskers looked a little more pronounced.
Gaara however looked impassive as a today wave of sand rushed from his gourd at her. She sprung up using her tails high above it and slashed with each tail.
" Great wind slash!" Crescent shaped wind slammed around gaara destroying a good chunk of the earth and what would have hit him was blocked by sand. The sand then spread all over the arena floor causing naruko to jump back to the arena wall. She summoned two shadow clones and both cried out
" Summoning jutsu!"
Two puffs of smoke the crowd was wide eyed. A massive white five tailed fox easily larger than naruko and a equally large toad.
" Give me some oil"
" A little fire foxy chan!"
The two summons spewed forth their summoners requests and covered the sand in the burning oil turning a deep blue before dissipating showing nothing but glass remaining. The clones dispersed and naruko slammed down shattering the glass floor with a thunderous punch, causing a shock wave to travel to gaara. Gaara was honestly getting bored. He had no blood lust, no reason to fight but his mother assured him to keep going to win against this female. He rose himself with sand as he ground the earth below him into more and more sand. He slammed into the ground below with tremendous force suddenly. He grit his teeth as his sand armor cracked and he looked up to see a second naruko standing on a tree near his sand.
gaaras eyes widened, she made a third in the summoning smoke. The clone raided her tails and he saw spinning blue spheres on the tips of her tails. Several experienced shinobi were a bit wide eyed at seeing the fourth prized jutsu used so expertly. One particular shinobi was practically drooling at the sight. Orochimaru was having to restrain himself from smiling ear to ear in his disguise, having the perfect breed machine AND the fourth Justus would be nearly mythical. Soon he would have her. All too soon.
Naruko stopped, her shoulders slumping and her head tilting. Gaara crossed his arms.
" You don't seem very interested in fighting me." Naruko said.
" I'm not. But I will. Mother demands that I crush you." Gaara said stoticly.
"you had more fight in you when facing Lee kun!" Naruko said with a tick mark. This was true, gaara thought, even his siblings were surprised by his surprisingly calm fight. He was normally so blood thirst and viscous and here he was almost bored looking.
" why does your 'mother'" naruko said with air quotes " want you to crush me?" naruko asked
" she does not say, but i listen to mother. She is the only person i obey." gaara said.
" im surprised, most girls don't like a mommy's boy." naruko said with real surprise etched on her face.
" explain." gaara said simply.
" i mean, those two girls up there have some pretty strong feelings for you. And considering you seem like them and they smell like you i assumed you were together." naruko said shrugging her shoulders. Gaara looked over to where naruko was looking at and saw matsuri and sari, his eyes widened a bit just as their faces paled as their feelings were now publicly known. Gaara turned to naruko, she didn't appear to be lying but why? Why would those two feel for him? No one loved him, he only loved himself, only fought for himself….. But then why did he spare them? Why were they the only two he didn't even think about killing? Because they were weak? Too easy maybe? He could feel their fear around him but yet they stayed, finding him, when no one else dared, staying with him when no one else would. They stayed in his room…...not out of fear of what his father would do to them otherwise but…. To make sure he was safe. He…. didn't need to prove his existence to mother anymore… he had them…. They loved him. Gaara looked back at them and then back at naruko. Forget this fight, it bored him. Although he had to thank naruko some day for telling him this. He looked back up at a spike of killing intent and saw his father next to the hokage. He had totally forgotten about the invasion. Well know way he was doing that now, not with a leaf nin telling him about matsuri and sari's feelings and certainly not with the risk of them getting hurt. He would prove himself worthy of his existence by making sure neither of them were ever hurt again. The sand beneath him rose him to the balcony above, him barely registering a disqualification for leaving and giving the victory to naruko. He stood in front of matsuri and sari with crossed arms, both girls were shaking a bit and trying to look away.
" look at me." gaara said seriously, both girls slowly looked over and their breaths hitched as gaara wrapped his arms around them.
" thank you for giving me purpose." gaara said softly. He could feel them slowly relax into his embrace and he himself almost flinched as they wrapped their arms around him.
An explosion rang out across the stadium, and the invasion begun. Enemy shinobi clad in both sound and suna garb flooded into the stadium and began attacking the shinobi of the crowd. Gaara encased matsuri and sari in a dome of sand before raising it up into the air away from the danger. gaaras face frowed in anger, he would not let what gave him purpose be crushed, he summoned the sand from the arena and rode a tidal wave of sand down on some oto shinobi. He would make them pay.
Naruko summoned nearly a hundred shadow clones, each running off to their own job, evacuating villagers, academy students and securing the hospital. She jumped next to hino how stuck a oto nin in his heart with a palm strike, freezing it and shattering the organ inside of him. Hino spun, tossing the corpse into sasuke's opponent stunning him long enough for the uchiha to land a kunai in the oto nin's neck. Naruko looked up at the purple cube formed at the hokages seat and worried about her grandfather but pressed on, her team had work to do.
Lee had one thought as he fought through the suna nin in the hospital.
They really needed to drink milk.
He was giving simple axe kicks and chops and found that their necks snapped easier than pocky. Maybe it was because he weights were still off, or maybe it was something along the lines of his girlfriends blood still super charging him, regardless he had cleared the hospital fairly clearly and was now doing sweeping rounds to make sure no more enemy nin entered. He heard a slight rattle of chains from the floor above followed by a man screaming and lee smiled. Karin seemed to be doing good work as well.
Temari knew she had to fight against her suna comrades if she wanted to be on konoha's side but something about attacking her past comrades didn't sit right with her. So shikamaru suggest she defend somewhere that no matter who attacked she wouldn't feel guilty.
The academy
She had to agree, she didn't feel and regret blasting oto and suna nins alike that had come to kill innocent kids. She knew that there was no true good or bad side in war but killing kids got you pretty close to being actually evil in her book as you could get. She swung her fan again, the slices of wind cutting down two more shinobi as their shadows disconnected from shikamaru who sat lazily in a tree, waiting for the next fools to be caught in his trap.
Haku stood beside two kunoichi that sasuke had informed her about.
Sakura haruno and ino yamanaka.
They were….average kunoichi, one had clan abilities and the other had a good amount of strength and insane chakra control. Both were outside the clan district. A popular thing during invasions is to steal what sets a village apart from its neighbors, mainly clan justus and techniques. The good news the shinobi who tried were few and far inbetween and the better news was that between the three of them and their combination of skills they had very good team work, quickly killing and stopping anyone they came across. Haku saw the two girls and the look of determination in their eyes and she smiled. She supposed they wouldn't make bad brides for the uchiha family.
Kakashi ducked under a swipe from an oto nin before jamming a kunai into his foes jaw, he took a moment to watch his opponent fall to the ground dead. He saw Guy was making good work of the other oto nins that were swarming their position and he thought back to his genin team. This was their first taste of war and he wished his team had never had seen it. He knew his team was strong, strong enough to deal with it and more than ready for it but….. He wanted to keep bragging rights. Something about being a actual war veteran was something he liked to hold over his overpowered genin like a carrot on a stick, that him having fought in all out war made him better than them even if, he had to admit, they were even or above his own skill level in power. He sighed, well what's done and done, at least could could get more kills than them he saw tossing a kunai and killing a suna nin who guy was dealing with, robbing him of the kill.
42- him, 41 guy
Hanabi was a bit stressed.
Ok scared, she was scared.
Then invasion had started and she had gotten separated from her caretaker in the ensuing chaos of the attacking suna-oto forces. She was desperately trying to find somewhere to hide as there was no real way she could fight her way back to the compound if she needed to. She yelled as a sharp pain erupted from her leg causing her to fall. She rolled over and saw her lower calf had been cut by a thrown kunai. A oto nin dropped down in front of her, a less than pleasant expression on his face. Hanabi desperately tried to stand but her fear and body we're making that a more than difficult process considering. She braced herself covering her eyes for the strike that would end her life when she heard a gurgle. She opened her eyes to see the other nin had dropped to his knees and had a kunai in his chest. The oto nin fell back after a moment now lifeless.
" Hey are you alright?" A voice said. Hanabi looked up from where the other nin was and she felt heat ride up to her face. A brown haired boy with a long trailing scarf stood in front of her. He had a very cute expression and from the other kunai in his hand he had been the one to save her.
" I-I-I'll be o-ok" she said cursing her sudden nervousness, she tried to stand and a sharp pain from her calf prevented her, before she fell down completely the boy caught her. In a fluid motion he reached under her legs and back and picked her up. She wrapped her arms around his neck to support more of her weight and tried so hard to fight back her blush.
" My name is konohamaru, what's yours?" He asked.
" Hanabi."
" Fireworks? That's a really pretty name." He said smiling. Hanabi thanked the fact he was already holding her less her legs would have collapsed from beneath her.
" Let's get to a shelter ok?" He said. Hanabi only weakly nodded trying to think about how she was going to repay her knight in shining armor.
The sandime was so fucking done. Done with this shit, done with being hokage, done with his bullshit students, done with stupid fucking suna and done with dodging his old mentors blows. He blocked a strike with enema before jumping over the seconds swipe. Kami, when he got out of this he was quitting his job, promoting his granddaughters team ,grabbing his shit and fucking off. He could see outside the barrair and knew his nin were making short work of the invading force, and he knew his student wasn't stupid, once his forces were down he would have to run in order to survive, sarutobi just had to last that long at the latest, or kill his student and two hokages at the earliest…. Meh, he might as well try. And with that he pressed the attack.